Long Time no See..

Sorry for the long break, a lot has been going on in my life, the least of which is the fact that my Computer crashed. I finished To Stir a Magick Cauldron (more than a year ago) and to be honest even after all these years I found most of it to be irrelevant to me. What she has on Angels and Faeries or Nature Divas just doesn't mesh with what I know, I have my totem sorted out and have for years, but as my Native American blood too thin to be worth mentioning I don't use her as a guardian but as a Guide.

My Totems are a Doe info here and a Hawk info here. I determined my Totems the old fashioned way, by observing the reoccurring animals in my life and the roles they have played for me, the Doe made herself known to me by the time I was fifteen the Hawk appeared later as I took my place as an adult I was driving down a side road and she was in the road, sitting in the middle I stopped my car and physically removed her from the road. Both have regularly been there when time has come to make hard choices.

Circle casting and psychic protection is old hat, and I find that Silver has too many different Circle casts in the book. Weather magick is essential to every Witch should know how to do and Silver covers it very well before transitioning into drawing in divinity (invoking the Gods). These exercises were in the form of meditations and I'm afraid that I don't have much to share.

Spells? Prayers? This section discussed the Witches Pyramid, which I have reviewed in the past. Celestial Magick, which corresponds with the moon, sun and stars, another thing that I have reviewed in the past. To be honest learning to cast a spell was not something I needed after this many years.

The later portion of the book introduces The Oath which again I have already discussed, but Silver does a good job in introducing.

Thoughts on the Mysteries I am still sorting out, I know what I want to say, but as to how I can share it without breaking my own Oath. I have a practice that I use with students, I create a box, stain it dark and mark it with runes, inside the box I place Items connected to the Mysteries of the Craft. Once they take the Oath on their own I give them the box. Its a fun little tradition filled with symbolism and tying back to the idea of a new life.

Next came Silver's talk on Lineage. Lineaged and FamTrad are not the same which she implies. I am Fam Trad. I have a heritage within the craft that stems from my father (Gardenerian via Buckland) and another that stems from my mother both very different grandmother traditions. I count that before my Coven Lineage, my Coven was home brew, an amalgamation of mostly Gardenerian Teachings, I was initiated by one of Doreen Valiente's craft grand-children.. but what Tradition was she working with at the time of that initiation was she still practicing as Gardner taught or was she practicing as taught by Robert Cochrane? That isn't the heritage that affected my practice in the craft, my FamTrad Lineage shaped me.

The BoS I have already written about and that concluded To Stir a Magick Cauldron.